J.

Lindsay Oaks,Martin Gilbert, Munir Z.

Virani, Richard T. Watson, Carol U.
Meteyer, Bruce A. Rideout, H. L.
Shivaprasad, Shakeel Ahmed, Muhammad
Jamshed Iqbal Chaudhry, Muhammad
Arshad, Shahid Mahmood, Ahmad Ali & Aleem
Ahmed Khan 2004.Diclofenac residues as the
cause of vulture population decline in
Pakistan. Nature volume 427, pages630–633
Abstract

The Oriental white-backed vulture (OWBV; Gyps

bengalensis) was once one of the most common
raptors in the Indian subcontinent1. A population
decline of >95%, starting in the 1990s, was first noted
at Keoladeo National Park, India2. Since then,
catastrophic declines, also involving Gyps
indicus and Gyps tenuirostris, have continued to be
reported across the subcontinent3. Consequently these
vultures are now listed as critically endangered by
BirdLife International4. In 2000, the Peregrine Fund
initiated its Asian Vulture Crisis Project with the
Ornithological Society of Pakistan, establishing study
sites at 16 OWBV colonies in the Kasur, Khanewal
and Muzaffargarh–Layyah Districts of Pakistan to
measure mortality at over 2,400 active nest sites5.
Between 2000 and 2003, high annual adult and
subadult mortality (5–86%) and resulting population
declines (34–95%) (ref. 5 and M.G., manuscript in
preparation) were associated with renal failure and
visceral gout. Here, we provide results that directly
correlate residues of the anti-inflammatory drug
diclofenac with renal failure. Diclofenac residues and
renal disease were reproduced experimentally in
OWBVs by direct oral exposure and through feeding
vultures diclofenac-treated livestock. We propose that
residues of veterinary diclofenac are responsible for
the OWBV decline